'birds May Fly Away

RICK STONE Square One

October 9, 2005|RICK STONE

Listen. Hear that angry muttering? The snowbirds are restless. They have a grievance.

It's not that I'm calling them "snowbirds," although I understand many object to that stereotyping word. I'm going to use it anyway, partly because they're not here to complain about it yet. The annual influx is still a few weeks away.

But "snowbird" also evokes an idea that, according to continuing studies by the University of Florida's Bureau of Economic and Business Research, holds up pretty well. The typical snowbird is older, richer, whiter and in better health than the typical Palm Beach County resident.

He or she spends much of the year at home in a Northern state (statistically, it's New York) and winters in southern Florida. The Fort Myers area is Florida's primary snowbird destination, but Palm Beach County comes in second.

They come with money, they have no kids in school, they are not notable consumers of publicly provided social services and they pay taxes.

Boy, do they pay taxes. I mentioned a grievance before? There it is.

The Save Our Homes amendment in the Florida constitution limits annual tax increases to 3 percent on the homes of Florida residents even when the value of the home rises 20 percent or 30 percent from one year to the next.

But the snowbirds in their non-homestead vacation places stand naked in the raw environment of rising property values. It takes less than four years of 20 percent valuation increases to double their taxes and not much more than that to price a winter resident right out of Florida.

They have begun to organize. On the West Coast of Florida, angry snowbirds in an organization called Homeowners Against Runaway Taxation (HART) are calling on local governments to reduce the burden of rising valuations by lowering tax rates. They also want the courts to order property tax caps for all, not just Florida residents.

Their organizing principle is "no taxation without representation." But that representation part is also their problem.

Snowbirds can't vote here.

In Palm Beach County, state Rep. Carl Domino, R-Jupiter, has been trying for three years to cure the defects of the Save Our Homes Amendment, which releases pent-up valuation increases when properties are sold. But snowbirds aren't on his radar.

"My legislation is focused on people who make Florida their primary home," Domino said.

The political math is daunting as it is. Any adjustment to Save Our Homes to benefit actual voters would choke off revenue for local governments statewide and create problems for counties that lack Palm Beach County's rich tax base. Snowbird relief would deepen the problem with no political upside.

"I've had enough trouble getting my bill heard as it is," he said.

Popular sympathy for snowbirds is often restrained by class envy and the phenomenon of all the out-of-state tags in winter traffic jams. But economists consider them an asset. "Their economic impact is substantial," said Stan Smith, director of UF's economic research bureau. "I think that's reflected by the fact that other states are actively attempting to attract them."